4: Friends of Te Henui

Squamulose lichens (Scale lichens)

Squamulose lichens (Scale lichens)

Scale lichens thallus, however, consists of small, often partly raised, and usually overlapping scales or squamules. These over-lap and form mats, the lower surface of which is often white and cottony.They are otherwise similar to crustose lichens in that they possess an upper cortex but no lower cortex.Some scale lichens give rise to a fruiting structure called a podetium: an erect, hollow stalk, resembling a golf tee, a toothpick or, less often, a branching shrub